Mary Shelley's The Mortal Immortal

In the short story The Mortal Immortal by Mary Shelley, Shelley tells the tale of a young man who has accidently turned immortal and follows him through the life changes that come along with this transition. The story is told through the point of view of the main character Winzy, whom mistakenly drinks an elixir in which he thought was going to make him fall out of love with his then lover. Unfortunately, he instead turned immortal, much to the dismay of his lover named Bertha. As the couple cope with Winzy’s inability to physically look older, their relationship quickly deteriorates and jealousy and insecurity ensue, largely coming from Bertha’s end. Due to this jealousy, Bertha is treated as a character not deserving of sympathy and it can
For example, Bertha being a woman in a patriarchal society means that she was obviously going to take the fact that she couldn’t stay young more difficult. In the story, she became so insecure that she even tried to dress younger. Furthermore, the act of getting old for a woman can be more dreadful due to the importance placed on a woman keeping her youthful beauty. Therefore, when one’s significant other gets to swim in their youthful looks while one drowns further into old age, a common response would be insecurity and doubts about faithfulness from one’s partner. It can be said that Bertha’s reaction was due to her being a women and the fact that there was more pressure to retain her beauty, which caused immense insecurity. The absence of Bertha’s point of view was purposely left out in order to ensure that sympathy was only kept for Winzy in order to not deflect from the general meaning of the story which is Winzy’s personal struggles in dealing with his immortality. However, the story might have been told more effectively through Bertha’s point of view so we can see why she handled the conflict the way she did and the different factors such as how the concepts of gender and beauty could have made her react the way she did. This could help the reader understand why Bertha couldn’t be supportive and not reduce her to being a bitter old lady. In conclusion, different points of